ASP.NET AJAX Team Blogs

RELEASED: Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper for 6.2

Thanks to the quick effort from Chris Pietschmann , I am happy to announce that we have an updated version of the Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper that is in sync with the update Virtual Earth Map Control 6.2.  You can learn more about what’s new in 6.2 at http://blogs.msdn.com/virtualearth/archive/2008/09/24/announcing-the-virtual-earth-web-service-and-virtual-earth-map-control-6-2.aspx .  If you aren’t familiar with the intellisense helper, here’s our description from CodePlex: “The purpose of this project is to fully enable JavaScript Intellisense for the Virtual Earth Map Control inside of Visual Studio 2008. Creating Microsoft Virtual Earth mashups and applications just got a whole lot easier. This JavaScript library...

Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control Samples

John O'Brien , a Windows Live Developer MVP, has been cranking out samples of how to use the Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control .  He's also blogging over at www.liveside.net now.  His latest post is titled Server Side Clustering and comes complete with videos!  John has also created a site where you can see his samples live and download all the samples at http://veasp.soulsolutions.com.au/ .  He's organized the samples in a similar fashion to the Virtual Earth Interactive SDK .  If you are leaning towards using the Virtual Earth ASP.NET Control , then you'd be silly not to check this stuff out! - Marc Technorati Tags: virtual earth , asp.net , ajax Read More...

Building Virtual Earth applications just keeps getting easier

I've given a number of presentations on Virtual Earth development over the last couple years.  The first thing ASP.NET WebForms developers say to me is how bummed they are that they have to write JavaScript.  That's understandable.  ASP.NET WebForms developers have come to expect server controls to do most of the heavy lifting for them.  ASP.NET AJAX introduced the UpdatePanel control which allows you to AJAX enable your applications without having to write a single line of JavaScript.  Yesterday, as part of the latest Windows Live™ Tools for Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2008 CTP, a new Virtual Earth ASP.NET control was released.  This is a sweet control that makes integrating Virtual Earth...

SCREENCAST: Rendering Polygons from SQL Server 2008 on Virtual Earth

In this screencast, I build off of the concepts shown in my previous screencast and show you how to render a polygon on a Virtual Earth map using REST, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), LINQ to SQL, and the new geography data type in SQL Server 2008. To learn more about the GeoRSS utility library, visit: http://blogs.msdn.com/eugeniop/archive/2008/07/01/simple-georss-utility-library-released.aspx A big thanks to Eugenio Pace for letting me use it as part of my sample! Screencast: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/keydet/Rendering-Polygons-from-SQL-Server-2008-on-Virtual-Earth/ Code: - Marc Technorati Tags: virtual earth , asp.net , ajax , wcf , linq , sql server 2008 Read More...

SCREENCAST: Saving Virtual Earth Polygons to SQL Server 2008

In this screencast, I show you how to draw a polygon on a Virtual Earth map and save it using ASP.NET AJAX, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), LINQ to SQL, and the new geography data type in SQL Server 2008. Screencast: http://channel9.msdn.com/posts/keydet/Saving-Virtual-Earth-Polygons-to-SQL-Server-2008/ Code: - Marc Technorati Tags: virtual earth , asp.net , ajax , wcf , linq , sql server 2008 Read More...

WEBCAST RECORDING: Adding Mapping Capabilities to your Applications with Virtual Earth and ASP.NET AJAX

First, let me apologize since I promised to make this recording available almost two months ago.  I was trying to get the recording uploaded to the same Live Meeting servers as my other webcasts.  Needless to say, I had some challenges.  I decided to upload it to Silverlight Streaming .  I had to split the presentation into two files since this is a 90 minute presentation and Silverlight Streaming has file size limits. In this presentation, I show you the fundamentals of the Virtual Earth Map Control 6.1 using JavaScript.  Then, I show how you can use ASP.NET AJAX and the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) to make building Virtual Earth solutions easier.  Finally, I show you how you can host Virtual Earth in...

UPDATED WORKAROUND: Intellisense for page level map variables using the Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper

So I have been playing around with other approaches to the workaround described here .  The first thing I tried was:   On the surface, this seemed like a reasonable workaround.  However, there were still some scenarios where JavaScript errors would pop up.  For example, switching to 3D mode would cause the map control to raise an error:   A similar error would happen when you close the browser.  One could argue this annoyance is a small price to pay for JavaScript Intellisense for the map control:).  However, it is still very annoying.  Good news!  There's a better workaround.  I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier:).  The idea is to move the page level map variable...

Updated Virtual Earth Map Control demo code

I’ve update my primary Virtual Earth (VE) map control demos. If you aren’t familiar with my VE demos, they are essentially all the samples from the Virtual Earth Interactive SDK redone in a Visual Studio solution. My directory structure maps almost identically to the steps treeview in the Interactive SDK:   Then, I sprinkle in a little ASP.NET AJAX and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) where these technologies can make building VE solutions easier. All you have to do is download the zip and you basically have the Interactive SDK code++. Here’s what’s new in the updated code: All pages use the 6.1 map control. Cleaned up some AJAX code that still used really old previews from ASP.NET AJAX (Specifically Microsoft...

NEW RELEASE: Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper

I am happy to announce that we have a new release of the Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper to bring Intellisense in sync with the new Virtual Earth Map Control 6.1 .  In addition to 6.1 compatibility, we also made the following enhancements: Consolidated all scripts into a single VEJavaScriptIntellisenseHelper.js file for better portability Updated Default.aspx to point to the 6.1 Map Control Updated Default.aspx.js to explain how to get intellisense everywhere for a page level map variable Added a readme.txt with history The quick turnaround is a huge testament to the hard work of the devs on this project.  Although I spent a good set of hours coordinating, writing a little bit of code, and "building" this release...

VE JavaScript Intellisense Helper bug & workaround

A bug has been discovered when using the Virtual Earth JavaScript Intellisense Helper where JavaScript Intellisense fails to surface in a very common scenario.  The scenario is when you have declared a page level map variable.  You will get Intellisense in the JavaScript function where you instantiate the map variable.  However, you will not in other functions:   In the example above, you would get Intellisense for map in GetMap(), but not in Find().  The problem is that Visual Studio 2008 JavaScript Intellisense engine does not know that GetMap() gets called before Find().  Therefore, there is no way to know that the map variable used inside the Find() function is an instantiation of the VEMap class.  We are...